Energy
The Two Elk Saga: How one man’s dream became state, federal nightmare
WyoFile is featuring a special investigative series, “The Two Elk Saga,” by former Los Angeles Times correspondent and regular WyoFile contributor Rone Tempest. Wyoming has a long history of uncritically embracing, then giving public money to, dubious and expensive energy projects. The proposed $2 billion DKRW Advance Fuels — coal-to-liquids — plant near Medicine Bow…
Read MoreDeadly business: Texas onshore oil and gas drilling
Despite hundreds of oil field fatalities, federal government does little to monitor or safeguard onshore workers.
Read MoreAir quality monitoring falls short at Eagle Ford oil and gas wells
An oil boom is underway at the Eagle Ford Shale in Karnes County, Texas, but the development is diminishing the quality of life of the inhabitants of the rural county and possibly endangering their health, according to reporting by the Center for Public Integrity, InsideClimate News and the Weather Channel. Residents’ complaints are going unaddressed and…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Mentally ill inmates, sex predators unleashed, civil liberties violations
Sex Predators Unleashed | Sun-Sentinel“Another child is dead. This time, a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl, a year younger than Jimmy Ryce. A 1999 law passed after Jimmy was raped and murdered at age 9 is meant to protect Floridians from sex offenders by keeping the most dangerous locked up after they finish their prison sentences. But…
Read MoreOil Spills: U.S. well sites in 2012 discharged more than Valdez
“It was one of the more than 6,000 spills and other mishaps reported at onshore oil and gas sites in 2012, compiled in a months-long review of state and federal data by EnergyWire. That’s an average of more than 16 spills a day. And it’s a significant increase since 2010. In the 12 states where comparable…
Read MoreHennepin Co. commissioner voted for contracts tied to wife’s law firm
The Star Tribune reports Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin has repeatedly voted for multimillion-dollar trash-disposal agreements tied to the law firm where his wife works — and never disclosed the connection. Minnesota law says that officials taking action on a matter that would “substantially affect the official’s financial interests or those of an associated business”…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: NSA leaks, secret fracking settlements, predatory tire rentals
Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations | The GuardianThe 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA’s history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows. See more coverage of the NSA surveillance. High prices are driving more motorists to rent tires |…
Read MoreLeaking gas pipelines across Michigan create an underground danger
“Crisscrossing Michigan are more than 3,100 miles of old wrought- and cast-iron natural-gas pipelines — the type federal regulators consider the most at risk of corrosion, cracking and catastrophic rupturing. The state’s two largest utilities have replaced less than 15% of these pipelines — 542 miles — in the past decade,” according to an investigation…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: OSHA ignores slow and silent killers, corporate influence reaches court, back-door school handouts
As OSHA Emphasizes Safety, Long-Term Health Risks Fester | The New York TimesThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency that many Americans love to hate and industry calls overzealous, has largely ignored the slow, silent killers that claim the most lives. Corporations, pro-business nonprofits foot bill for judicial seminars | Center for Public IntegrityConservative…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Student debt, river debates, lead contamination and opiate addictions
Milwaukee Journal SentinelThe Wrong-Way River“Biologists predict the number of unwanted organisms moving on the Chicago canal will only grow until the waterway is somehow plugged. And it is much more than a Great Lakes problem because biological pollution travels both directions on this invasive species superhighway.” The Morning CallAmazon warehouse workers fight for unemployment benefits“Its…
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